I think this is earlier than in the past, which is great as it enables pipers to get a head start on the tunes. It is also helpful in New Zealand as our Clasp, Gold and Silver Medal tunes are based on the UK list, so it allows the Comunn na Piobaireachd NZ Music Committee to get our list out early as well.

The Piobaireachd Society has produced what might be its most creative system yet for the 2010 major piobaireachd events at the Argyllshire Gathering, Northern Meeting and other events that take on the organization’s recommended tunes to be submitted.

The following tunes for 2009 have just been announced by the Piobaireachd Society. Four tunes from the Senior Competitions list below will be added to the NZ Clasp list and four tunes from the Gold Medal list below will be added to the NZ Gold Medal List. The complete NZ lists for 2009 will be announced shortly. See piobaireachd.co.uk for details.

Competitors will submit six tunes from the above list, one of which they will be required to play. (*) The version of this tune in PS 11 is considered to be deficient and a revised version will be published in the next re-print of the book. The revised score will be made available on the Society’s website.

Competitors will submit four tunes from the above list, one of which they will be required to play. PS = Piobaireachd Society Collection K = Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor

Competitors are not restricted to the settings or styles in the books mentioned above, and may play any other setting or style, provided that the judges may take into consideration the authenticity and merits of the setting or style submitted. Competitors are advised to give advance notice to the judges should they intend to play settings or styles different from sources stated above. Altogether different tunes known by the same or similar names will not be accepted as alternatives. This announcement is made by the Piobaireachd Society to ensure earliest publication. It is without prejudice to any arrangements made by either the Argyllshire Gathering or the Northern Meeting.

For the Music Committee
Alan Forbes, Honorary Secretary
Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 March 2008 )

The following text from the new Piobaireachd Society web site is a well written summation of Piobaireachd, and it’s an example of the content of their fantastic new site. Take a look. You’ll love it and learn something in the process. I did. Top marks to the Piobaireachd Society!

When the Highlands and Islands of Scotland adopted the bagpipe, perhaps some seven or eight hundred years ago, they began to develop the instrument and its music to suit their needs and tastes. What emerged was the instrument we know today and a form of music, piobaireachd, which is unique to the instrument. It is a very stylized form of music. There is freedom in the theme or ground of the piobaireachd to express joy, sadness, or sometimes in the gathering, a peremptory warning or call to arms. Thereafter the theme is repeated and underlined in a series of variations, which usually progress to the crunluath variation where the piper’s fingers give a dazzling technical display of embellishment or gracenotes.